


Encrypted

by shcherbatskayas



Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, Gift Fic, Language of Flowers, Teruteru makes one (1) blow job joke, Valentine's Day Fluff, cavity inducing fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9232457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shcherbatskayas/pseuds/shcherbatskayas
Summary: Peko Pekoyama looks at her desk, analyzing the mystery of the day. There’s a piece  of paper covered with a variety of dots, a vase of flowers (today, it’s clematises and water lilies; yesterday was pink roses and white lilies), and a glass of orange juice. She smiles for half of a second, just enough that she thinks that the person who gave her all of this can see, before she settles in and starts decoding.(Or; Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu finds a variety of ways to tell Peko he loves her until he can work up the courage to say it out loud)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thewildwilds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewildwilds/gifts).



> For thewildwilds for drawing me that beautiful picture of Feferi Piexes! Apologies for any errors in this fic, I wrote the majority of this at one in the morning. Enjoy the fluff!

The first time Fuyuhiko decides to try and tell Peko he loves her is Valentine’s Day. He swear that he’ll do it, he works up the nerve and wears his nicest suit and practices the words a thousand times in front of the mirror. He knows that she isn’t one for chocolates, so he gets her flowers. A dozen red roses, nothing too complicated. The meaning is straightforward. It should be easy. It’s three words, and yet they hold so much that he’s scared to admit. 

When he walks into class, there are Valentine’s gifts all over his classmate’s desks. More than he’s interested in who got what, Fuyuhiko finds himself looking at the desks of people who got nothing. Teruteru’s is unsurprisingly empty: he needs to work on his charm. Souda, Ryouta, and Komaeda all have empty desks as well. He feels bad for Souda, because he’s friends with Souda, but he struggles to come up with sympathy for the rest of them. It’s then that Fuyuhiko sees that every single girl in the classroom has at least one thing on their desk and he turns, curious to see what’s there for Peko. Part of him hopes that it’s something stupid just so that his dumb roses will outshine it, but most of him hopes that it’s something amazing because hell, it’s Peko Pekoyama. She deserves something amazing. 

His face drops when he turns and sees an empty desk. There’s nothing there, not even a card from one of the girls. Maybe it’s because the girls who give out cards are friends with Mahiru and thus hate Natsumi, who took it upon herself to very publicly befriend Peko within three days of arriving at Hope’s Peak, but it pisses him off anyhow. Fuyuhiko glares at the desk as if he can make a gift materialize out of thin air, but he fails. It’s then that he remembers the roses in his room, but the room is half full already. If he went back and got them, all of these people would _know_ , and the concept of all of these people knowing exactly how he feels makes Fuyuhiko want to climb into a ditch and never come out. 

It’s only then that he looks at his own desk and sees that someone made him a dozen fried dough cookies. Fuyuhiko briefly forgets about Peko’s empty desk as he takes a bite. There’s no note or any form of indication as to who made them or what it means, but he almost doesn’t care because he’s fairly certain it’s not Peko. She cooks well, but she doesn’t like sweets, so why would she make them for him? “Holy shit.” He says as he finishes a cookie. “These are fuckin’ fantastic.”

“Ooooooh, who left them? Ibuki wants some!” Ibuki declares, all but sprinting over to his desk. 

“Hell if I know, they didn’t leave a note or anything.” Fuyuhiko shrugs. “And eat your own damn cookies, you have enough to feed the entire army, navy, and air force over there.”

“Yeaaaaaaah, but they aren’t fried dough cookies!” She complains, sitting on top of Peko’s desk. It pisses Fuyuhiko off that there’s even any room to sit on her desk. It should be covered in gifts, but he’s too much of a coward and he supposes that everyone else is, too. That doesn’t comfort him. 

“Fine, take a cookie.” He grumbles, giving her one of the ones that look a little bit burnt. She runs off to show off her trophy to her friends when Peko walks in. She’s stunning as always, her hair in two neat braids and sword strapped to her back. As she walks towards her desk, Fuyuhiko notices that she put on a little bit of makeup. She hardly ever puts on makeup. He tries to ignore the way her face drops when she’s confronted with the empty desk, but he can’t help it. 

He remembers Natsumi telling him how excited she was for Valentine’s Day. As much as Peko trusted him, Fuyuhiko understood that some things were discussed just amongst girls and that was one of them. It’s only been a few months since Peko started allowing herself to express such emotions, and the process hasn’t been easy for anyone, but it was all worth it to hear her give an actual opinion of her own. The disappointment on her face is subtle to the rest of the world, but Fuyuhiko has spent his life decoding her facial expressions and to him, it’s as clear as if Peko would have burst into tears right then and there. 

She says nothing to him, still keeping up the front that they only met each other a few months ago, but in that moment, Fuyuhiko wants to ask her to drop it immediately and let him comfort her right then and there. But he doesn’t. He takes a deep breath, sends a glare at everyone within sight, and turns around. “Mornin’, Peko.”

A few people look at him in shock. It’s rare that Fuyuhiko ever starts a polite conversation with classmates he isn’t explicitly friends with, and he knows that this is breaking his persona, but he can’t find it in himself to care. “Good morning.” Peko says, briefly frowning as if trying to warn him that other people have taken notice of them. 

Fuyuhiko takes one of the cookies and holds it out, making a conscious effort to keep his hand from shaking. “Do you want one of these cookies? They’re really good. No idea who made them, but they blow Teruteru’s food out of the water.”

“I heard blow Teruteru?” Hanamura says, seeming to materialize from thin air. 

“And I heard that the only butterflies you’ll be getting in your stomach today are from my knife, motherfucker.” Fuyuhiko spits back, reaching the hand that isn’t holding the cookie into his coat pocket. The knife isn’t there, and even if it was, his preferred blade isn’t a butterfly knife, but the threat does its job and he’s gone. “Sorry about that.” He says to Peko, feeling strangely ashamed of the incident despite similar ones happening a thousand times a day. 

“It’s alright.” Her voice is soft, so quiet that Fuyuhiko almost has to strain to hear it, but he hears it anyhow. 

“So, do you want the cookie or not?” He asks, placing it on her desk.

“But they’re yours.” She says, confusion obvious on her face. 

“Yeah. And I’m giving one to you because it seems that our classmates are giant pieces of shit and it takes me, a mediocre piece of shit, to at least acknowledge that you exist.” The few people within earshot of Fuyuhiko shift uncomfortably in their desks, and he takes pride in that. He takes more pride in the fact that Peko almost smiles at his dumb comment. 

“I don’t think that you’re a mediocre piece of shit.” Peko whispers, picking up the cookie and gingerly taking a bite. “And thank you.”

“No problem.” Fuyuhiko gives her half of a grin before turning around and that’s when Chisa decides to begin class. 

***

Fuyuhiko tries to catch up with Peko during lunch, but Nekomaru takes her away for training, saying something about sloppy technique that makes Fuyuhiko want to try and deck him. After class, she goes to train more, presumably to distract herself. The tie feels like it’s strangling him by the time she returns from training, but she looks so tired and worn down and sad that Fuyuhiko can’t spring a love confession on her now, not when she’d have to muster so much energy to try and listen. He punches a wall once she’s gone and after Mikan bandages up his fist, Fuyuhiko knows what he has to do. 

“Say, Mikan.” He begins. “You don’t happen to know a florist who would be open right now, do you?”

“I, um, I do, actually. Twenty Five Eight Floral! They make really pretty arrangements.” She searches for the address and finds that they’re only a twenty minute bike ride from the school and gives it to Fuyuhiko. 

“Thanks, Mikan. I owe you one. If you ever need the yakuza for anything, call me up.” After that, he’s off like a shot to Twenty Five Eight Floral. 

***

Twenty Five Eight Floral has more flowers that Fuyuhiko has ever seen. There are so many that he has no clue where to start. It’s ten ‘o clock at night and the shop is nearly empty as he frowns at a row of flowers that he can’t identify.

“Can I help you with anything?” The store manager asks, adjusting her apron. The lady looks nice and has a motherly sort of face. 

“Yeah.” Fuyuhiko sighs, running his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. I fucked up big time. You see, I’ve been in love with this one girl since I was like, two, and I was going to tell her today but then a bunch of stuff happened and she looked like she just needed space, so I gave her space, but I want to get her something now because she looked so damn sad, and I can’t deal with her being sad. I don’t think I should tell her tomorrow, so I’m just gonna get her flowers and leave them on her desk, but I have no idea where to start.”

“That’s quite an issue, dear. Let’s look up some flower meanings and--”

“Wait, flowers have meanings?” He interrupts, absolutely amazed by this news.

“Of course they do!” She smiles over at him, getting out a book and starting to flip through it. “They’re all in here.”

“You don’t happen to have a copy of that book, do you?” Fuyuhiko asks, wanting to know all of the possible meanings of every single flower so that he knows the perfect ones to get her. 

“For ten dollars, I do.” The manager laughs as Fuyuhiko starts rifling through his wallet and hands him a copy.

It takes half an hour for them to decide on the best arrangement, but eventually Fuyuhiko walks out of Twenty Five Eight Floral with a bouquet of blue hyacinths and yellow tulips, which supposedly translates to sincere love. He tells her the apology will come with the note and Fuyuhiko finds himself writing it in code if only because Peko will certainly recognize his handwriting with letters but might not recognize it with dots and dashes. He took the words he wanted to say, translated them into French, wrote them backwards, and then wrote that down as morose code. It takes nearly an hour to do, but it’s worth it.

***

Fuyuhiko walks into the classroom half an hour before class starts, the flowers in one hand and the note in the other. Chisa sits at her desk, half of a smirk on her face as he approaches Peko’s desk and put the items down. 

“Not a word.” He whispers, and when Chisa seems unimpressed by the threat, he adds a soft yet certain “Please.”

“My lips are sealed.” She promises as Fuyuhiko walks out of the room. She takes a picture of the bouquet and puts it in the Hope’s Peak Staff Group Chat with a simple smiley face and the reminder that all of them now owe her twenty dollars a piece.

***

Peko Pekoyama hadn’t expected anything on Valentine’s Day, but being confronted with an empty desk left her with an amazing amount of disappointment. She had heard the hard way that hope was hard to crush and after spending a few hours moping, she recovered and got back up and got on with her life. 

She’s still in the middle of braiding her hair when she gets nine texts in a row from Ibuki, all but begging her to get to the classroom right then. Figuring that something awful has happened, she runs down the hall, braiding her hair as she goes. She bursts through the door and surprisingly enough, the world is not falling apart at the seams and there are not giant battles occurring in the middle of the room. It takes her at least thirty seconds to spot what’s out of place and when she sees it, her face lights up in pleasant surprise.

Sitting atop her desk is a clear vase filled to the brim with flowers. She approaches it slowly, almost afraid that it will disappear if she moves too quickly, and eventually reaches her desk and sits down. Most of the girls and some of the boys have flocked around her desk, all curious about the sender and what it means. The note is in some sort of code that Peko recognizes as Morose, and she grabs her notebook and begins the process of decoding. She says very little to those gathered around her, more interested in decoding the note than adding to any theories. 

Of all possible things, the note is an apology. _I should have given you this yesterday, but I didn’t because I’m a coward. I’m beyond sorry. I love you._ Peko grins as she reads it, a light and fuzzy feeling rising up in her chest. There’s no name on the bottom and she looks around the room, making a list of likely suspects. Komaeda is suspicious, since he talks constantly about how much he loves all of their talents. Ibuki told her about it, so she shoots up to the top of the list. Souda seemed on edge about the whole event, so she adds him as well. Teruteru is also likely, if only because he’s Teruteru. She briefly considers Fuyuhiko, who had complained yesterday about no one getting her anything and seemed oddly happy this morning, but she rules him out almost instantly. Still, somehow, she hopes that it’s him as she writes her response.

***

Fuyuhiko goes back into Twenty Five Eight Floral at the same time as the day before, telling the manager the tale of his success and how damn happy Peko looked with the whole thing. Natsumi forwarded him screenshots of her talking about it, and the fact that he managed to make her feel so happy felt better than winning a yakuza shoot out. They come up with another great arrangement, this one yellow acacias and violets, a faithful yet secret love. He writes another note, this time translating into Spanish with the extensive aid of a dictionary. It’s a simple thing about how great she is, and it feels stupid and cliche to write out, but Fuyuhiko does it anyhow.

When he sneaks in again, giving Chisa a wave, he notices a piece of paper and a single flower on Peko’s desk. The note is in her neat, swirly handwriting. _It’s alright, and thank you for the flowers. I love them_. The flower on her desk is a yellow rose. A quick Google search tells him that it means that she forgives him. It’s a blessing, really, one Fuyuhiko isn’t sure he deserves but is more than happy to take.

***

They fall into a comfortable routine after a few days. It starts when Peko walks into the room and sees the day’s bouquet. She always smiles as if it’s the first time and then works on decoding the note and the meaning of the flowers. Sometimes, when Fuyuhiko sees her forgetting to eat (by far one of her worst habits), he takes it upon himself to add some orange juice or a bagel or something similar, which she’ll eat as she works. Then there’s school and Fuyuhiko starts subtly trying to befriend her in the public eye, working with her in group projects and talking to her of his own free will just enough that people know that he enjoys her company but not too much to become suspicious. At least, that’s what he thinks. 

What he doesn’t know is that after a week, the whole class has figured out that Fuyuhiko is behind it. What he doesn’t know is that they start helping, shoving the two together at every given possibility. Peko notices _something_ is up, but misses the exact nuances as to what. 

After school, Fuyuhiko and Peko hang out with Natsumi and then Peko goes to train. He and Natsumi then talk business and romance and memes and whatever until he leaves to do homework. Every night at ten, he arrives at Twenty Five Eight Floral. Within two weeks, he knows every staff member by name and they each know his situation. Fuyuhiko starts to develop an eye for flower arrangement as he works with them to think of the best way to express how he feels. Then he arrives just before curfew and codifies some sentiment that he can’t quite put into words. He sleeps, very little and usually poorly, but he does. After that, he talks to Chisa and drinks some coffee and puts down the day’s gifts on her desk and it starts all over again. 

It goes on for a month. One month of sleeplessness and anxiety and indescribable joy and complaints from his father about the amount of yakuza money he spends on flowers. One month until Fuyuhiko can’t take hiding his feelings anymore and decides to say it out loud.

***

He decides on March 15h, a month and a day after Valentine’s. This time, it’s for real. There are no flowers on her desk that morning and Peko’s face falls until she translates the note. _Meet me at the gardens at 8 pm, if you can. Today’s flowers will be there, and so will I._ Then it lights up again before the lesson starts and they go about their day. 

Fuyuhiko is in the gardens at 7:30, holding the day’s bouquet in his hand. When he told the staff he planned to confess, they went over the top. He has three dozen roses in every shade of pink and red and white and purple. The suit feels too warm despite the mild chill in his air and he paces around the gardens, loosening his tie and glaring at every passerby that isn’t Peko.

Eventually, she arrives. Every time Fuyuhiko sees her, she looks more and more beautiful, and this time is no different. There’s a simple grace to how she walks, as if she’s dancing on air to a rhythm no one else can hear. She pauses when she sees him. Peko’s eyes go wide and she stares, blinking owlishly as she tries to comprehend. 

“Um, hi.” Fuyuhiko says, rubbing the back of his neck before holding out the flowers. “These are for you.”

Peko takes a step towards him and gently takes the flowers from his hands, investigating each and every one as if they’re art. In a way, Fuyuhiko thinks that they are. She’s silent, and Fuyuhiko doesn’t push her to speak. He knows that it can be hard for her to find the words she wants at times, and he’s more than willing to wait. 

“I love them.” She tells him, the words more of an exhale than anything. Then, in a rush of boldness, she adds one more thing. “I love you.”

Fuyuhiko grins up at her, chuckling. “You beat me to the punch, Peko. I’ve loved you since...God, I don’t even know since when. From the minute I was born, probably. I’ve just been too much of a chickenshit to tell you. I figured that there was no way--No way that someone like you could ever love me back.”

“As did I.” She admits. “I thought I had no right to love you, that it wasn’t my place, but I just couldn’t...I just couldn’t not love you. Do you understand what I mean? I just couldn’t not love you.”

“I think I understand.” Fuyuhiko says. “I’m not sure what else to say, really. I never thought I would actually get this far.”

“Neither did I.” Peko says, and amazingly enough, she laughs. It’s the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard and Fuyuhiko takes one step towards her. She moves forward as well and it’s hard to say who leans down or who goes on their toes or exactly how it happens, but within seconds, they’re kissing. It’s clumsy and awkward and neither one of them know exactly what to do with their hands, but it’s easily the happiest Fuyuhiko has been in his life and he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

When the kiss ends, they stare at each other for a few seconds and then laugh again because it’s all so ridiculous. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.” Peko says between giggles, clutching the flowers to her chest.

“I don’t think I have either.” Fuyuhiko agrees, smiling at her tenderly. “So, what are we not? Are we like--Or are we not, or what do you want or do you even want to be with me or--”

“Yes.” Peko interrupts. “Yes, absolutely.”

Fuyuhiko kisses her again right after she says that. This time, he figures out that he should probably hold her hands until they both discover how the whole kissing thing works. The second one is less awkward and lasts longer and somehow makes him even happier than the first one, which he previously thought was impossible. 

“I should probably put these in my room.” Peko says at the end of the second kiss, referring to the flowers. 

“Yeah, probably.” They start walking towards the dorms, Fuyuhiko holding her free hand because it’s cold and his skin still feels like it’s burning after all the anxiety of waiting and wondering if it would work out. 

“It looks like a flower shop, practically.” Peko teases, and he almost stops dead in her tracks because he can count on one hand the amount of times she’s felt comfortable enough around him to make a joke. “I don’t mind, though. I actually like it a lot.”

“Speaking of flower shops, do you want to go to Twenty Five Eight? That’s where I’ve been getting all of them out. You can pick which ones you want this time and we can stop and get something to eat afterwards.” He offers, hoping that the offer doesn’t sound stupid or childish or anything like that. 

“I would love to. Maybe I can get some for you this time around.” She says as they pass Ibuki and Mikan, who turn to each other and start squealing in joy. 

“Pffft, you don’t have to. I think they’ll be happy to meet you, though. I’ve kind of befriended the entire staff at this point, and let me tell you, they’re all great. Like Megumi, she’s the manager and…” As the walk back, Fuyuhiko tells her all about the staff and their antics and all the times he went in there with ridiculous ideas and how they helped him make it all beautiful. Peko listens and then adds in little stories about decoding the notes, how she discovered that she really enjoys solving puzzles and has notebooks filled with unsolved ciphers and Fuyuhiko offers to add a second opinion for the ones that she’s stuck on.

The date is simple for a first date. There’s the arrival to Twenty Five Eight Floral and meeting the staff members that were there, who were beyond overjoyed to meet the fabled Peko. Megumi spent a solid five minutes crying and telling Fuyuhiko how proud she was of him, which was half embarrassing and half endearing. After that, they eat at a nearby cafe and pour over the Zodiac Cipher, making exactly zero progress and yet somehow feeling satisfied. After that, they walk back to the school and have kiss number three right outside of Peko’s door before going their separate ways. Both of them sleep like the dead, no longer kept awake by the anxiety of uncertainty.

***

The next day, there’s a vase of flowers on Peko’s desk and she smiles because she knows where they’re from and how they got there and who gave them to her. Kiss number four is a kiss on the cheek from Fuyuhiko right before lessons start and as she takes notes and draws roses in the margins, Peko can’t help but wonder how it’s possible for any one person to deserve such happiness.


End file.
